A Privateers Hardships
by Meyer331
Summary: Andrew Silver, a renowned son of the famous Marleybone admiral, Archibald Silver. This young man looses his crew and ship by the hands of the Armada on his first voyage alone and is captured. But the Armada needs Andrew for a reason, but why? As he ventures with his new crew as a privateer, he finds something out about his past that could change The Spiral forever.


**Hey guys! Listen, I know what your probably thinking, " how come you're not doing Friends of Thieves?" , well it is a HUGE work in progress, I want upload it when it is all finished. **

**So as you can see, I'm a huge Pirate101 fan as well as some other things. I actually do have a Pirate101 account, I'm a privateer and my character's name is Andrew Silver.**

**I may have a character there in Pirate101 but kingsisle gets all the credit. Enjoy!**

Chapter:1

So there I sat, alone in the brig in the belly of an Armada ship. At first I wondered to myself, " Where in God's name did it all go wrong?", and from there I started to think back from my childhood.

The farthest back in my memories was when I was merely a baby in Valencia, I was alone in a dark place I did not know where and remembered the sounds of sparklocks firing and the loud and rhythmic sound of heavy footsteps marching on a cobblestone ground, the sound went on for many hours with no end in sight.

As the sound of the violence got further and further away, I heard the sounds of running and panting, panting that of a dog. " Hurry men! Check for survivors!", I heard someone shout. Out of nowhere, I saw a little beam of light peer from my hiding spot, as I saw what looked like to be a dog with a scruffy face with a blue officers coat and a red bandana. I saw a surprised look on the dog's face, but slowly melted away to a tender smile, " What do we got here?", the dog said joyfully," sir I found something!". The dog then gently lifted me up from my hiding spot. I was brought into the light to see what looked like a destroyed market.

Hmm that must have been why my hiding place distinctively smelt like peppers, must have been hid in a vegetable cart.

Anyway, he brought me out into the light to see, other dogs, but in red coats and had large hats atop their heads. The dog that held me brought me to another dog that wore a blue coat with a tricone on his head.

" Sir!"

" Yes, Archibald?"

" I found something, a baby."

" A baby you say?"

The dog named Archibald held me up to his superior, and he studied me with a curious face.

"Boy or girl?"

" I checked sir, its a boy."

" Remarkable, I've never seen a human baby before, where was he found?"

" I found him in a covered cart, sir, the child's parents must have hid him from the Armada."

" Aye, but what should we do with him?"

The both of them stared at eachother in silence for a moment, until Archibald finally spoke up.

"Sir... with your permission, I propose we take the child into me and my wife's care until we've caught up with the resistance and located his parents."

His superior thought for a moment, looking at me then turning his head back to Archibald a few times until he built up a warm smile and put his paw on his shoulder.

" Lieutenant, I believe there would be nobody better to take care of a child than you and your wife. Gillette! William! See to it that you escort Archibald and the child back to the ship to make sure they're safe."

The two redcoat dogs walked with Archibald with me in arms back to their ship, on the way I saw the mess this "Armada" left along the way, I saw many buildings burning and several bodies both of these robot like beings and the bodies of unicorns in a few places, it was the apocalypse I tell you and about several buildings were these green banners with a gear to match, all these horrific things became singed into my brain about what could be the same fate of other places on the Spiral.

After our little stroll through chaos, we finally reached a giant ship with a plaque on the back of the ship quoting its name, " The Venture". All four of us climbed aboard the ship and one of the redcoats spoke out," Hey, Archie, what are you gonna call the little tyke?", "Oh relax, Gillette, it's someone else's child, can't become to attached.", Archibald answered quickly. " True, but you and Mary have been to have a kid for a while you, know an-", "Gillette !", he shouted surprised," Are you saying you're hoping for someone to die and for me to simply nab their child?!", his high tone scared me and I started to cry," Oh look what you did!", Archibald gestured to my crying, he shook his head and walked me back to his quarters.

It was getting late, and all the redcoat dogs returned to the ship, empty handed and nobody to follow, it seemed nothing had been left of my little town and there were no survivors. At dinner, the dogs all had a frown imprinted on their faces, hardly even bothered to touch their food. When the dogs were sound asleep, Archibald was still awake pacing about his quarters with his pistol out its holster, he was whimpering all throughout the cabin upset over, until he finally looked over to me in his hammock, he smiled, removed his hat, and ran his paws through his hair and finally walked over to the hammock.

He picked me up, and he flopped down on the hammock with me in a snug embrace, he looked up at the ceiling for a minute, then he took a deep breath, and he looked down on his chest with my half asleep form atop him," Well, kid, I'm afraid I have some bad news, I'm afraid you won't be able to see your dear parents again, and don't you think for a moment that they would plain abandon you, I'm sure what they did was to keep you safe, they fought in the resistance against the Armada, and from what I can gather they didn't make it.", I started to fuss and cry a little bit," Oh don't worry, boy, I'll take you back to Marleybone, and raise you as my own, I promise, me and my wife Mary are going to be great parents, and if you parents are still out there, I'll leave you more perfect than you were before.", I looked straight into his light blue eyes as he stared into my brown ones," Now if your gonna be in the family, you're gonna have to know who I am. My name is lieutenant Archibald Silver, member of the Marleybonian Royal Navy, 327th infantry, sharpshooter division. Your dear mother, Mary Silver, the sweetest lady you could every meet, and owner of a fine bakery, and you? Hmmm, but what should I call you?", I reached out my small hand onto his wet nose and gave it a firm squeeze," Ouch! Your strong." , he said playfully," How about, I call you Andrew, huh? You like the name Andrew Silver?", I started to doze off, I fell asleep with my small hand still on his nose,"Alright then, Andrew Silver, you are my son." And with that he started to drift off to sleep with these last final words," Good night my boy"

Life was good when I first came to Marleybone, my mother Mary really was a sweetheart, not only at the bakery, she made amazing deserts, the sweetest candies, and the tastiest of dog biscuits. Don't you judge me about eating biscuits, I grew up around dogs. I lived in a wealthy neighborhood and went to the best schools and got the greatest of education. The kids in my neighborhood were a mixture of dogs, foxes, and even a frog or two, all of them very nice people.

Half of my childhood was how my mother wanted it to go, getting a good education and working at her bakery. But when I turned twelve, my life got very...interesting. What my dad wanted me to do was to go onto the service with him, and be a tough guy like him. He taught me how to shoot, he enrolled me into boxing clubs at school ( top of the class thank you very much), then two years later, I joined my dad in the Royal Navy , my dad worked some things over with his superiors and made me a corporal right when I joined. My dear old dad taught me many a thing about the military; battle tactics, gadgets, weapons, ships, you name it.

But one day my father entrusted me with a very important mission, there have been reports of the Armada possibly threatening an ally island, known as Skull Island. And so I sailed my own ship and lead my own crew of redcoats ready to go guns blazing on the clockwork menace.

As we entered the Tradewinds skyway, via Port Regal, we noticed that it was eerily ... silent. The crew was on edge for we all knew what kind of quite this was, the calm before the storm and a massive storm at that.

All of a sudden we heard the fire of many cannons, we started to get barraged at every angle but for the life of us we couldn't find out we're the shots were coming from. As I saw the upper deck being destroyed, I looked at every which way to find who was firing upon us, I couldn't see anything, not until I looked closer into the sky. I saw massive storm clouds, forming to and beyond the ship, but as I looked closer into the dark clouds, I could almost make the out line of something, the underbelly of a ship, an armada ship at that.

I looked further about the clouds, and I saw the outline of four more ships, it seemed like my first voyage alone would be my last, but I sure as hell wasn't going down without a fight, it was all up to me, I began to take charge and barked orders to the crew," Men, the Armada is using the clouds as cover! Mr. Philip, I need a status report! ", a crew member ran up to me,"Sir, half of our cannons are down, and we are low on ammunition!", " Then load what cannons we have left and activate the boost, if we be falling back, then we do it with iron and powder! Men! Load the cannons and aim high!".

The crew took my orders immediately and without question, we fired everything we had on the damned ship at the Armada but it hardly did any good, I doubt anything we fired at the ship even reached the hull.

I had to accept the fact that I wasn't going to win this, I had to accept the fact that we had to turn and run.

I used what little boost we had to get as far away as we could from the armada, but before we got far, they shot at us one more time and stopped our ship cold.

All of the sudden, tow cables shot down from the shadow of the ships, and slowly I saw the shadows come down from the clouds and saw the shining bronze hull of the Armada's wrath.

The giant ship lowered itself next to us until it was about ten feet above our main deck. Then I saw the blank unreadable faces of armada musketeers peering off the ledge of the ship with their rifles staring us in the face. A boarding plank came down from the ship, a blue musketeer officer came down onto our main deck with a few marines behind him. I stepped down from my position on the wheel to confront the officer, but before I could reach him, one of my men grabbed me by the shoulder and yanked me back as the rest of my crew grouped in front of me, to hide me from the sight of the armada troops.

"Which one of you bears the name of captain?", the officer shouted, I grabbed the crewman's hand and threw it off my shoulder, I began to step forward through the crowd when two more of my men stopped me, one of them turned around to me,

" Sir, what are you doing?" , I starred him dead in the eyes with the most serious of faces,

" Get the hell out of my way man, nobody is threatening me or my crew, especially my crew"

" Sir, we beseech you!", the man whispered loudly.

" I'm giving you one last chance you blasted mongrels! Where is the one called Andrew Silver?", the officer demanded, I shuffled my way almost to the front where I could vaguely see the Armada troops, but then I saw Mr. Philip step up face to face with the officer," Get melted you damn pile of rust." He said as he poked the officer's chest. The clockwork stepped back a little then he pulled out a sparklock pistol and shot Phillip in the stomach, and with that he dropped like a fly.

" Someone do take note of that man's bravery", said the officer smugly," my patience grows very thin, where is your captain?".

My blood began to boil so hot you could make a pot of tea, I shoved violently through my crowd of men, I pulled out my pistol from its holster and shot the officer in the head.

" I'm right here, metal boy. Men! Give no quarter!",

I unsheathed my sword and began to slash through the marines on my ship as my men came to arms, I ran up the boarding plank with some of my men to follow.

I cut and I shot clockwork after clockwork with my men fighting beside me. As I fought I came to clashing sword to axe with three marines, I dodged and ducked, I stabbed one of them in the chest, I cut off the other one's arm, but the last one dodged my attack and riposted and lashed at me in the eye with his axe. I fell backwards onto the ground, dropping my sword. As I caressed my bleeding eye, I saw the marine hovering over me. He raised his axe in the air, ready to deliver a finishing blow unto me, I closed my good eye in acceptance of my fate. All of the sudden, I heard a gunshot, I flinched as I hesitated to open my eye to see what happened. I looked up to see the marine still hovering over me, but this time with a big hole in his chest. He was about to fall on top of me, but I rolled out of the way of the falling marine, and then felt a hand grab my arm and yank me onto my feet. I turned to see one of my officers, staring at me in surprise.

" Sir! Your eye!", he exclaimed.

"Never mind my eye lad, are we winning?"

I realized then I just jinxed myself, out of the large main hatch on the ship, a group of these humongous Armada soldiers. They were twelve feet tall at least, carrying these massive swords and had mounted cannons. I stared at down the barrel of the cannons of the towering giants in defeat, " Men!", they all turned their attention to me, dog and clockwork alike, " it seems we can't win this one, lay down your weapons."

All of my men drooped their ears and dropped their weapons onto the deck. I wasn't prepared to lose good men, men that I had formed a bond with before I made my voyage to my foolish pride and stubbornness. I picked up my sword and sheathed it away.

One of the giants stepped up in front of me and my officer.

" Deacon requests your presence in his cabin", it said in a low slightly metallic tone," we only wish you captain, the rest of your crew goes free."

"And if I refuse?" I dared to ask. The giant troop reached an arm to his back, pulled out his hand mounted cannon, and aimed it at the officer next to me. I looked at the giant and back to the dog at my side, " Very well. Men, get back to the ship." , my men couldn't believe what they heard.

" Sir, no!", my officer exclaimed in protest.

" I'll be fine, now get out of here."

"But si-"

" That is an order, officer!" , I yelled on wits end.

He stared at me in a lost face. After a moment of silence he complied, he gestured to the rest of the crew to return to the ship, and I on the other hand, I was alone.

I was apprehended of my weapons and my officers coat and tricone, as I was escorted across the massive ship in chains by four marksmen to the cabin of this so-called Deacon.

" A word to the wise, boy.", said one of the Armada troops.

I looked up at him with a flaming stare.

" The only reason you are still alive is because you are of use to us, I would suggest not to provoke Deacon."

As I arrived at the doors of the ship's captains cabin the marksmen's words floated around in my head, what could I, a simple boy do for a massive army such as the Armada? Leverage maybe? No, Marleybone doesn't answer ransoms, I was still being taught the whole military business so I know I didn't have any much valuable knowledge, I did have some contacts but they don't dig up anything that raises the suspicion of an army, mild crime mostly.

The troop unlocked my chains and started to gently push me through the door into the cabin, "Wait.", as I said he stopped his pushing, " Hmm?", the troop asked. "What did you mean by that I could be of use to you?", he let out an eerie little chuckle," In time you'll see why we need you.", he patted me on the shoulder while he opened the door and scooted me in. All I saw in the room was darkness that was lightly lit from the crack of sun coming from a window and a large desk with a map behind it.

I walked towards the desk and then I heard the door of the cabin open and close," So, the progeny of the renowned admiral, Archibald Silver, now in the clutches of the Armada."

I turned around to see a tall slender armada leader that had no face and wore a long black and gold jacket, a hat to match, a black cape, and held a strange looking cane.

I studied the clockwork's appearance and mechanical movements as he walked around me towards his desk.

"I can only assume that you are Deacon?"

"Indeed, I have heard of you and your foster father's reputation, it is an honor to finally meet you."' He said as he extended a hand to me and in which I shook with my one free hand.

" Oh, goodness me, your eye."

He reached into his coat and pulled out and gave me a cloth handkerchief with the symbol of the Armada in the middle. First I wiped off my blood- covered hand and tied the cloth around my head covering my still bleeding eye.

" Forgive me, we lack the proper medical supplies, we will have you properly healed after we raid Skull Island."

"If you don't mind me asking, Deacon, but what use is Skull Island to you?

" That is a question you will find out soon enough, my dear boy. Now there is something I want you to see."

He got up from his desk and walked towards the window and opened the blinds for me to see my damaged ship in the distance. I walked to the window next to Deacon in worry.

" What are you up to Deacon?"

" You'll see. Ludos, Vicus, to me."

I heard the door open and close and saw a marine and a marksman behind me.

" Sir the ship is in range"

" Excellent"

They were going to fire destroy my ship and kill my crew.

" What are you doing!?"

All I heard was a laugh coming from the clockwork behind me. I my eye not to see the death of my crew. I heard the loud boom come from the ships cannons and heard the explosion of my distant ship and the faint and muffled screams of my crewmen.

I felt so many emotions at that moment: sorrow, anger, hate, depression, fear, and worse the icy-cold brush of death.

I opened my eye and saw the falling wreckage of my ship, I felt so much anger and disbelief. I lunged at Deacon, but before I reached him, the clockworks behind me grabbed both of my arms and pulled me away.

" You won't get away with this, Deacon! I'll have your head!"

" I'm hoping for it. Men, through him in the brig."

I screamed, I shouted, and I cursed at the top of my lungs. When I got to the brig, I had nearly lost my voice. They threw me into my jail cell and shut the heavy door behind me.

Ah, so that's when it all turned to crap, I took the damn job.

I sat in my cell for hours until I heard the sound of conflict outside. The battle was shaking the whole ship around with me falling on my ass every ten seconds. Then out of nowhere I heard the sound of swords ringing and pistols firing. I didn't know what was going on up there, but something told me my freedom was at hand. I got up off the floor and walked towards the cell bars as I heard a muffled conversation.

" Get down she's going to blow!"

I heard the hiss of a fuse being lit and an explosion moments later, the rubble of what ever got blown up came flying down passed my sell.

"He's got to be here somewhere! Check the cells down there, monkey!"

" I'm on it!"


End file.
